Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dear Comic Art Fan,

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been experiencing a bit of a renaissance lately with Nickelodeon producing a new cartoon, the upcoming movie, and IDW's new line of comics. In the midst of this resurgence, TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman has recently sold off large portions of his collection but held back much of the Turtles material. But now Eastman has announced that next month he will auction off the rarest of TMNT collectibles including the very first drawing ever done of the Turtles! Keep watching the Heritage Auction website for more info or if you're in the northeast, you can go straight to the source as Eastman appears next weekend with Heavy Metal collaborator Simon Bisley for a panel and signing at Boston Comic Con!

I live in the Toronto suburbs where I'm very happily married to the perfect woman and a proud father to two great kids. My wife has tolerated the thousands of comic books with nary a complaint and every time a piece of art shows up in the mail she seems just as excited to see it opened as I am.

2. Which piece in your gallery is your favorite?

The Daredevil commission penciled by John Romita Jr. and inked by John Romita Sr. Even though I look at the piece every day, I still cannot believe I have a commission done by the Romitas! I've been fortunate enough to get pieces from so many of the artists whose work I've enjoyed and CAF has played a big part in that.

3. How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

Not that long, actually, I bought my first piece in 2000. It was a great Dan Jurgens page from the Superman / Fantastic Four treasury edition that I still have. By that point in time, I'd been reading comics for 20 years and honestly had never even thought about buying art. The internet changed all that; seeing artists and fans post their originals got me started. It was, and still is, fantastic to just send an email to a Paul Gulacy or Mike Grell and ask them to draw something specifically for me. My 10-year old self never would have believed it possible.

4. How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have about 10 pieces framed and hung on the wall in my den, while my larger artwork is stored in a couple of portfolios. Most of my convention sketches are actually in a scrap book. Like a lot of convention goers, at one point I had so many superb sketches in my actual sketch book that I became paranoid that I'd lose the thing or it would get irreparably damaged. So after every con I now pull out the pages and put them in a simple scrap book.

5. What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

This is so tough - there are a couple of originals that I'd love but am smart enough to realize that they'll never be my top financial priority. On the top of that list would be the cover to Brave and the Bold #82 - my favourite Adams cover. On the more realistic list:

(5) Commission by Paul Smith. I've not tried to get one because I honestly can't figure out what to ask for. I love Smitty's work though, so this will get done eventually. Containing the scope of the ask is my biggest issue.

(4) Another piece from Paul Gulacy, always a personal favourite of mine. I mean it as the highest possible compliment that I'll ask Paul for another work because Jim Steranko is unlikely to be available!

(3) A George Perez commission with Deathstroke vs. the Teen Titans. A big one. Perez rules.

(1) A Walt Simonson commission. A fella can dream. The Simonson Thor still resonates with me all these years later. Whether this is even possible or not, I've no idea - but at some point, I'm going to try!